London Calling: Toshiba offers foundry services

Toshiba is making multiple moves in its chip manufacturing; offering foundry services in Europe and reportedly cutting NAND flash prices just two months after cutting production.

However, Toshiba is also involved in some interesting moves in NAND
flash memory production. Readers may remember that in July Toshiba cut
production of NAND flash memory by 30 percent
due to concerns over pricing. Apparently the hope was that other makers
would follow Toshiba's lead and increase prices during an undersupply
situation.

That undersupply was confirmed in a statement from solid-state drive builder OCZ Technology Group Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) announced its manufacturing had been constrained in the second fiscal quarter due to a lack of NAND chips.

But
rather than hiking prices companies such as Micron stepped in tried to
increase market share, reports indicate. The result is that Toshiba has
reportedly now dropped the price of NAND flash memory by 20 to 25
percent. Who would be a chip manufacturer?

Mhhh....looks like this Toshiba's first step to enter the foundry market. As more companies pursue now fab-lite (see Japan) it appears it opens also opportunities for others to enter into foundry market (see Samsung).